Assuming the Helm

"On the Mississippi River, in Mark Twain's time, there were riverboat pilots who only knew a few miles of the river.  I mean, conditions changed so much, you couldn't know the whole trip.  Floods, sandbars, fallen logs...all a riverboat pilot could do was to know his little piece of the puzzle.  So for the next few hours, this is my ship.  We start our approach..."

--Robert Duvall as Captain Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner, Deep Impact, (1998)

Greetings, Customer Experience Leaders:

I'm Edward Lopez, a management consultant with Synovate Customer Experience.  I have had the pleasure of working with or meeting with many of you, and I look forward to meeting you all--even if only through our conversations on this blog.  As of today, I will author this blog and maintain the momentum we have built in our discussions on Customer Experience.

I want to thank Brian Lunde for being the pioneer and building a forum for us to share our experiences.   We are here because we know that customer satisfaction is no longer enough to win in today's marketplace.  We are here because we believe a differentiated customer experience will lead to enduring success for us and our companies.  We are here because customer experience is a relatively new frontier, and we know that the lessons we learn (and share) here will expedite progress for all of us on the 'Customer Experience Journey.'  We thank Brian for starting the conversation and for keeping us engaged with his sharp wit and thought-provoking commentary.

I'm excited for the opportunity to take the helm for this part of the journey.  When you check this blog, you'll read views, observations and experiences built by years of consulting Fortune 500 companies on the Customer Experience Journey and a lifelong love of marketing and customer strategy.  It's true--I have known since the ninth grade that my passion is marketing and attracting/retaining customers. 

I have worked with people and companies at all stages along the Customer Experience Journey, from new investigators to experienced companies with a deeply embedded customer focus.  I specialize in services businesses, so I will look to those of you in manufacturing companies to help balance my perspective.  From time to time, my posts may reflect other things about which I am passionate, including movies, music, sports, fitness, theater, travel and fatherhood.

Thank you for the contributions you have made to build this community.  I look forward to getting to know you and learning about your individual perspectives on Customer Experience.  Thank you in advance for checking in and chiming in when you can, and for welcoming other customer experience leaders to our community.  Working together, we can all move toward advanced competencies in Customer Experience Management that will wow our customers and leave our competitors behind.  Let's start our approach.

Comments

[Brian Lunde]

Eddie, thanks for your kind words and best wishes for fostering the customer experience dialogue here!